HMCS Protecteur

There has been only 1 vessel named Protecteur in the Royal Canadian Navy.

HMCS Protecteur (509) / operational support ship

HMCS Protecteur was commissioned at Saint John, New Brunswick on August 30, 1969. In 1973, she joined the NATO Standing Naval Force Atlantic for a 5-month tour along with HMCS Margaree. This was the first time 2 Canadian units worked with this group and the first time an Auxiliary Oil Replenishment ship was assigned to this fleet.

HMCS Protecteur left Halifax on August 24, 1990, as a participant in Operation Friction, Canada’s contribution to the economic embargo of Iraq following that country’s invasion of Kuwait. She returned home April 7, 1991. In the fall of 1991, HMCS Protecteur made visits to ports in Newfoundland, and a year later journeyed south to offer aid to victims of Hurricane Andrew in Florida. She sailed from Halifax on October 15, 1992, to begin a 2-year refit at Esquimalt, returning to service in August 1995.

On July 9, 1993, she was effectively transferred to the west coast fleet. On September 16, 1999, she departed Esquimalt to join the multinational forces responding to the crisis in East Timor. After serving as the force logistics co-ordinator for 5 months, she returned home on March 2, 2000. A major refit began in 2001, and on May 22, 2002, HMCS Protecteur left Esquimalt to replace HMCS Preserver in the Arabian Sea for Operation Apollo, Canada's military contribution to the international campaign against terrorism.

By the time she returned to Esquimalt in November 2002, HMCS Protecteur had sailed more than 50,000 nautical miles (92,600 km) and delivered over 150,000 barrels of fuel. Over the next decade, she was a fixture of Maritime Forces Pacific in national and international exercises such as Trident Fury and Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC), and on several occasions served as the allied mid-Pacific oiler. Returning to Esquimalt from one such deployment, on February 27, 2014, she suffered a major engine room fire that disabled the ship, causing her to be towed first into Pearl Harbor and then to Esquimalt to be paid off.

• Builder: Saint John Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., Saint John, New Brunswick.
• Laid down: October 17, 1967
• Launched: November 7, 1968
• Commissioned: August 30, 1969
• Paid off (final): May 14, 2015
• Displacement: 24,385 tonnes with full load
• Dimensions: 169.2 m x 23.2 m x 9.1 m
• Speed: 20 knots
• Crew: 227
• Armament: two 3-inch, two 40-mm, two Phalanx CIWS (Close-in Weapon System)
• Motto: "Soutien avec Courage" (Support with Courage)

Battle honours

• Gulf and Kuwait
• Arabian Sea